Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-07-01

"a
the Union. If its former commercial
prosperity shall return to our country,
we may reasonably anticipate that this
portion of the Generals system will be
supplied by individual enterprise, and
the means at the disposal Of the differ
ent States.
His second proposition was to con-
struct, in each of our important sea-
ports, number of floating batteries,
to be moved by steam towboats, and
thus turned and shifted at will to meet
an attacking foe at all points. BY bat
teries of sufficient capacity, and yet
not so large as to be unmanaga s5se. he
estimated That two broadsides might be
fired in the space of three minutes, or
1,S00 shots discharged in six minutes!
He urged with great earnestness that
it was the art of wisdom and sound pol
icy to endeavor to keep pace with the
advanced spirit of the age; and that it
was necessary to our national security
that we should avail ourselves of the
improved agencies OF steam navigation
as means of national resistance and
defense. Gen. Gaines spoke for about
an hour and q quarter, and was listened
to with marked attention.
Mrs. Gaines then assembled the plat
form and commenced her address,
reading from paper she held in her
hand. She began with vindication of
her position from the charges of what
might seem to be departure from the
appropriate sphere of her sex, whose
chief duties are properly considered to
lie in the domestic circle.
She pleaded as her excuse the higher
obligation of obedience to her "hege
lord" in whose presence she stood, and
declared with confidence that if jury
of her own sex were to be selected from
the audience to try her for the offence,
their unanimous verdict would be "ac-
quilted" Mrs. Gaines then proceeded
to descant upon her chosen theme, and
drew from the pages Of the worlds
history vivid picture of "the horrors
Of war;" The dreadful destruction of
human life at different periods, in bat
ties and sieges, marches and retreats,
was exhibited in a concise and rapid
sketch, the terrors of the carnage, the
scene presented after battle, the heaps
Of the slain, the dying and the wounded.
"Rider and horse, friend, foe in one red
burial blent," and all the accidental
horrors of war were depicted with all
the warmth of glowing and cultivated
fancy, with all the intensity of a wo-
mans feeling. ave can Weep" she
Indignantly exclaimed, cover q tale of
imaginary sorrow, concocted by some
hungry, starving novel writer, and yet
we have no sigh to breathe, no tear to
shed, at the recital Of heart-rending
calamities and miseries which we know
to be real"
Before Daniel Webster purchased his
estate at Marshfield he used to go there
every summer with small party of
friends, and trough it" in rude shanty,
erected for the accommodation of duck
shooters and fishermen. There, before
the door of the hut, might have been
seen, about the hour of sunset, stout
looking, darlk-visagcd, hard-featured
man, with shaggy roundabout upon
his back, and a coarse tarpaulin hat,
that looked rather the worse for wear.
upon his head, squatted upon stone,
and with handful of sand securing out
an old chowder pot, which the last user
had been so careless as to leave a little
less clearly than it should have been.
Shortly after the same hand was seen
to be sprinkling pepper and salt upon
the fruits OF that days expedition, as
they simmered in the pot over the
cracking fire. He was evidently the
prominent man Of the party; and after
the savory viands had been despatched
and the clothless board, with the keen
appetite and smaclling relish that hunt
ers only can appreciate, his were the
apt fingers that wiped the platters
fastest; and rs they sat around the
comfortable blaze of the Swapping
brushwood, from his prolific lips flowed
the countless stories at which thew
stared hardest and laughed loudest
Not about tariffs and banks and such
matters of State, which in those times
of political excitement men were most
apt to talk about, had the storry-teller
prattled; his anecdotes were of matters
OF less Importance, perhaps, but in
1lnltely more entertaining to the hard
listed, fun-loving. fishermen, and farm
ers who were his companions. And
when natures sweet restorer" called
them to their hunks, he was the first if
not the loudest, to snore; and at day.
light he was the foremost to make
ready the morning repast, by scraping
in the sand, outside the hut the knives
which the evening past had furnished. |
His name was daniel Webster; his sta
ton, Secretary of the United States Of
America; his home, wherever he
Glanced to be, in a fisherman's hut or a
hlngs palace, among his cattle or at
the Capitol
The Washington correspondents were
greatly troubled, during the war by
the censorship, and they studied dill
gently how to circumvent it. just ho.
tore the capture Of Fort Fisher. and
when the news of it's fall would natnr-
ally have had an effect upon the stock
market, one of the correspondents went
to New York in order to be on hand
"hen the opportunity came to buv or
to sell. A friend at Washington was 70
telegraph him when Fort Fisher feII
that The child is very sick" and to
make doubly sure; The dispatch was tn
be signed Mary" This neat little az.
rangement completely deceived the